What if...algorithm-free reco list, no. 10?
Sea creatures, scoundrels, secondhand sourcing, etc.
Hello!
I am back with another buffet of things and stuff that is not exactly “stuff.”
The Traitors
This damn show has become my new personality over the last week. I could do an 800-word close reading of the pure magic that is watching Phaedra Parks try to explain to C.T. Tamburello why it’s fucked up that Larsa Pippen is dating Michael Jordan’s son. But there are more interesting dynamics to excavate in The Traitors, which I’d pitch to you as “a bunch of reality TV icons playing that parlor game, Mafia, except add in The Challenge-style physical gauntlets and a dash of The Mole.” I wrote about these dynamics for Vulture.
How Far The Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler
Excellent pick if you like non-fiction books that combine authorial scientific obsession with memoir. Learned so much about sea creatures and thought Imbler wove their life in effortlessly. The cover is also gorgeous.
Beni Chrome Extension
It’s still early days over here, but so far, have really been enjoying this app/browser extension that combs eBay, The Real Real, Poshmark, and other secondhand sites for any product you might be looking at new. I am on a spending freeze, but creating a secondhand search alert for something I’m lusting over is somehow more satisfying than adding to cart.
Taking photos of your outfits and sending them to your friends
The aforementioned spending freeze is because I’m participating in this ridiculously named “75 Hard Style Challenge.” It’s been wildly illuminating to learn that I wear the same two pairs of shoes (three if you count my slippers) and that I refuse to show even a millimeter of collarbone if it’s below 70 degrees. Jokes aside, I’ve been doing this with a big group of internet friends, and waking up to see others’ outfits and then sending my own has become the highlight of my day.
Polite Society
I lurve a movie that constructs its own unhinged internal logic and then—more importantly—sticks to it (Bottoms also does this well). Polite Society is the story of teenager Ria, who fights to save her sister from a nefarious fiance. It takes a martial arts action film and then ricochets it through thriller, rom-com, and “bizarro girlie coming-of-age comedy” tropes. The end result is the most fun I’ve had watching a movie in months.
Reaching beyond your grasp
I don’t mean this in a hustle, ambition-above-all-else way. Instead, I’m referring to doing the scary thing even if—especially if!— there’s a high risk of failure. I did not think something like an artist's residency was for “writers like me” (unserious, commercially leaning, kooky), but I shot a ridiculous shot, and it paid off. Most of the ridiculous shots I shoot completely flop, but [insert Michael Jordan quote here]. And since you’re not Michael Jordan, no one has to see the vast majority of shots you end up missing. So if you’ve been looking for a permission slip to put yourself out there in what feels like an audacious way, this is it!
This newsletter brought to you by:
All of the above
Being an idiot and getting Califia Farms cold brew coffee because it was on sale and I was at a store that doesn’t carry my beloved grocery fave La Colombe. Fool me twice!
My editors at Vulture, who reminded me how much I love being edited by a fellow nerd who’s smarter than me.
Getting influenced by ALL of these recommendations today